The first thing I noticed was the smell.
Not the usual coffee-and-regret combo from my desk job, but wet dirt, manure, and what I desperately hoped wasn't rotting cabbage.
My eyes cracked open to a wooden ceiling that looked like it had been assembled by a drunk carpenter with a grudge against right angles.
Where the hell...
"Oi, Marcus! You gonna sleep all day or what?"
I bolted upright.
The voice came from outside, rough and impatient, like a chain-smoker gargling gravel.
My head spun.
Marcus? Which Marcus? Me??...but I've never heard that voice before.
Then it hit me. Not a metaphorical hit.
It actually felt like an actual hit, the cascade of memories that weren't mine, dumping into my brain like someone had ctrl+v'd them straight into my skull.
I was Marcus....well Marcus was also my name on Earth, it seems like a cruel joke to be reincarnated into the body of your namesake.
Twenty-three years old. Orphaned at the age of twelve.
A resident of Greenroot Village apparently.
And my job???..
Job description: literally stand at the village entrance and say "Welcome to Greenroot Village!" to anyone who passed by.
That was it. That was the entire character bio.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."
I stumbled to a cracked mirror leaning against the wall.
The face staring back wasn't mine....or rather, wasn't my old mine.
This Marcus guy had the kind of generic features that screamed "Background NPC #47."
Brown hair that couldn't decide if it wanted to be wavy or straight...it looks good though.
Forgettable brown eyes. A face sooo average it could be used as the default setting in a character creator.
Perfect.
I got transmigrated into a fantasy apocalypse world as the most expendable person possible.
The door burst open.
A grizzled man with a beard that looked like it housed several small ecosystems glared at me. "Marcus, the hell's wrong with you? You look like you seen a ghost."
"I—" ....How did I explain this? Hey, I'm actually a software developer from another world who just woke up in this body? Yeah, that'd go over well.
"I'm fine, just... weird dream."
"Whatever. Get to your post. Merchant caravan's coming through in an hour, and you know your job."
Right. My incredibly vital job of standing there like a human welcome mat.
The old man....Village Chief Grenn, according to my borrowed memories, stomped off.
I took a breath, trying to process.
Okay....Transmigration. Standard isekai setup. I'd read enough web novels during bathroom breaks to know how this worked.
Let's see...
Check for System....it's pending??...that's weird.
Check for cheat abilities.....I hope so...
Check for harem members who'll fall for my inexplicable charm: hard pass, actually.
I stepped outside into what could generously be called a village.
Greenroot was maybe fifteen buildings total, half of them looking one strong breeze away from collapse.
Dirt paths. A well in the center. Chickens pecking at nothing. The whole place had the vibe of a starter zone that even beginners would skip in video games.
In the distance, beyond the pathetic wooden fence, I could see the Blightlands. At least that's what Marcus's memories called them.
Its a corrupted territory where the apocalypse had already finished its work....there's twisted trees, purple miasma, and monsters that'd eat you in ways that required creative censorship.
The world was also ending, by the way.
Kingdoms were falling. Heroes were supposedly fighting back, but from what Marcus knew, Greenroot was so far off the map that nobody gave a damn.
Great. Just great.
I walked to my "post"...which is a spot near the village entrance marked by absolutely nothing.
This was my life now. Professional greeter in a doomed world.
I'd been standing there for maybe ten minutes, contemplating the meaninglessness of existence, when it happened.
**[SYSTEM INITIALIZED]**
The words appeared in glowing text right in front of my eyes.
It's not on a screen.....not in my head either.
Just floating there in my vision like the universe's most invasive pop-up ad.
**[Welcome, Marcus. You have been selected as the Administrator of the Apocalypse Survival System.]**
My heart kicked into overdrive. There it was. The cheat. Every transmigrator's golden ticket.
**[Current Status: Nameless NPC]**
[Current Skills: Greeting (Lvl 1), Standing Still (Lvl 3)]
"Okay... that's just insulting."
[Special Abilities Unlocked:]
[God-Level Crafting]
[Farming EXP Multiplier x100]
[Territory Upgrade System]
[Auto-Defense Protocol: Hostile Entity Slap]
I blinked. Then blinked again.
"Did that last one say... slap?"
[Correct. Any entity deemed hostile within your territory will receive automatic corrective physical contact.]
"You mean it'll slap them."
[Affirmative.]
I couldn't help it.
I laughed.
Here I was, in an apocalyptic hellscape, and my cheat ability included the option to pimp-slap aggressors??
The absurdity was almost beautiful.
[Tutorial Quest Available: Establish Your Territory]
[Reward: Basic Resource Package]
[Accept? Y/N]
I mentally selected Yes before I could overthink it.
[Quest Accepted. Current Territory: 50-meter radius around your dwelling. Upgrade to expand.]
A soft golden glow pulsed outward from my sad little cabin, invisible to anyone but me.
The moment it settled, I felt it....a connection to the land, like I'd suddenly grown roots into the soil.
[Crafting Menu Available. Would you like to view options?]
"Sure, why not."
A blue translucent interface unfolded before me, categories branching out like a skill tree on steroids.
Basic Tools. Farming Equipment. Furniture. Weapons. Defensive Structures. Food Recipes.
Each one had dozens of subcategories.
But what caught my eye was the note at the bottom:
[God-Level Crafting: All items crafted will exceed standard quality. Bonus effects applied based on materials and intent.]
I selected "Basic Farming Hoe" just to test it.
[Materials Required: Wood x2, Stone x1]
[Materials Detected in Territory Storage: Sufficient]
[Craft? Y/N]
Yes.
Light gathered in my hands, warm and electric.
When it faded, I was holding a hoe that looked like it belonged in a museum.
The wood grain was perfect, almost glowing. The stone blade was polished to a mirror shine, with faint runes etched along its edge.
[Masterwork Farming Hoe]
[Effect: +50% crop yield, +30% growth speed, soil automatically tilled in 3x3 area]
"Okay....." I said slowly. "That's actually insane."
A chicken wandered past, clucking mindlessly. I looked at the hoe. At the chicken. At the Blightlands in the distance.
Then I grinned.
If the world was ending anyway, I might as well make the most overpowered farm in existence.
"Welcome to Greenroot Village," I said to nobody in particular. "Population: one idiot with a god-tier gardening tool. Let's see where this goes."
[Tutorial Quest Updated: Plant Your First Crop]
I glanced at the interface. Spirit Carrot Seeds were available in the shop for 10 points. I apparently had 100 starter points.
"Spirit Carrots. Sure. Why not?"
This was either going to be the best decision of my life or the dumbest.
Probably both.